


Blister in the Sun

by ohstardustgirl



Category: Grosse Point Blank (1997), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Angst, Bounty Hunters, Coruscant, F/M, Grosse Pointe Blank - Freeform, Pining, Rebelcaptain Rom Com Challenge, Reunions, Romance, Separation, Tumblr Prompt, cassian as a hitman, long lost lovers, undercover as imperials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-23 11:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11988627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohstardustgirl/pseuds/ohstardustgirl
Summary: A loving tribute to Grosse Pointe Blank set in the Star Wars universe.A young Cassian Andor went undercover in the Imperial military, and their brutal Special Ops training left him feeling soulless and tainted. Instead of going home to the Alliance - to Jyn Erso - he escaped with a reprogrammed security droid and went out on his own as a hitman and bounty hunter. Ten years later, the Alliance gets in touch with a job offer just as Cassian needs to get out of town to escape the repercussions of a hit gone wrong. Reuniting with Jyn to go undercover at an Imperial party, Cassian will learn if he can ever really go home again.For the rebelcaptain network's rom com challenge on tumblrComplete!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> I didn't rewrite the movie scene for scene, because that wouldn't have worked unless I was doing a modern AU. I didn't think any sort of school reunion would have worked, and Jyn was never going to behave exactly like Debi (who ran screaming from the sight of a dead hitman in the movie). If I haven't been able to copy all the scenes, I've at least tried to stick to the spirit and the themes of the film (the reunion of Cassian and Jyn, and how it feels to go 'home' again in more ways than one). I kept some of the dialogue, too. There were some characters, like the Feds and random school people, that I just didn't have space for.
> 
> Feedback would really be appreciated!

Orson Krennic, as ever, had a flare for the dramatic and insisted on meeting Cassian on the rooftop of one of the highest buildings in Coruscant. The lower levels would have been safer and further from Imperial detection, but he knew Krennic despised being so far from the top. It was quiet at least, remote, and reduced the possibility of being shot at from a window above, but also made Cassian feel more than just a little trapped. It had been a pain to get to, and just like everything else about the job lately it had seemed like a massive effort with little reward. It was dark, high above the last level of neon lights, and a gentle breeze ruffled his hair. He stood in the shadow of the wall that bordered the rooftop, dressed in the black leather jacket that had been one of the first real gifts he had received from a woman he had loved - who he still loved - and felt as if he could just fall into the darkness around him and never come back.

He kept his hand on the butt of his blaster as Krennic appeared through the door way that accessed the building. 

“Andor,” He gestured grandly and his ridiculous cape billowed in the breeze. He pressed his hand over his heart and made an attempt at looking sincere. “Honestly, I had no idea you were in the city.”

“I’m sure.” Cassian remained against the wall, thumb toying with his blaster. “The Empire’s getting sloppy, double-booking a simple deletion like that.”

“The job got done, didn’t it? Though I’m sure _your_ employers were less than thrilled.”

Cassian scowled. He had been hired by a small but very well-informed group of Separatist-leaning investors to prevent the assassination of a visiting government official whose charitable efforts in the Outer Rim had made the Empire unhappy. Cassian had done his job easily, not even phased by the sight of the assassin’s body falling to the ground outside the hotel where the official had just exited. A simple job done well, not that Cassian felt pride: he didn't feel much of anything lately, other than an aching emptiness in the pit of his stomach. 

And then Krennic had appeared, and shot the official, and the good man he had tried to save had still ended up dead. 

“What do you want, Krennic?”

Krennic looked affronted. “I came here with an offer to make things better, and that’s how you speak to me?” He tutted. “I have a proposition. I’m forming an ‘alliance’ of sorts. A union, if you will, for people in our line of work. No more double bookings, no more stealing jobs from each other.”

“I have no interest in working with you. You don’t ever have to worry about me taking a job from the Empire away from you. Leave me to do my work.”

“Oh Andor, still clinging to your principles! Do you really think that you’re any better than me, just because you won’t work for the Empire?” Krennic chuckled. “You’re still just a cold-blooded killer at heart, if you have one at all.”

Cassian didn’t rise to that, didn't want to give Krennic the satisfaction. “Do you really think you can police every bounty hunter and hitman from here to the Outer Rim?”

Krennic snorted, his face twisted in disgust. “Why would I have any interest in the Outer Rim - what good has ever come from there? I’m talking about civilised society, Andor - Coruscant isn’t big enough for all of us.”

Coruscant was where the Empire was most visible, where it’s highest ranking officials and the men who signed orders that led to death and destruction, would come to indulge in their wealth. It was also where Krennic could be closest to power, the power of others, which made him feel big. Cassian had no desire to give up on his own hunting ground to Imperial sympathisers. 

“No deal.” Cassian pushed away from the wall, hand still hovering over his blaster as Krennic stepped towards him.

Krennic scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Andor. This is the opportunity of a lifetime - imagine, the contacts and resources we could share. We could live the dream: work less, make more money. Look: I can make it so you never have to take Imperial work, that's the beauty of a union. You could have your pick.”

“Don’t paw at me with your dirty little guild.”

Krennic stepped towards him. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” He smiled wolfishly. “But I’ll give you some time to think about it.”

He pulled his blaster, lightning quick in a show of defiance against his age, and Cassian pulled his just as quick. They stood, guns pointed at each other, and Cassian’s finger twitched over the trigger.

“Clock’s ticking,” Krennic smiled and started to back towards the door. “I’ll have my eye on you.”

Cassian held his blaster, aimed at Krennic’s head, until he disappeared from view. 

He sat on the rooftop, hidden in the darkness and thought about the life he had before, until it felt safe to leave.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

“Have you given any more thought to Mon Mothma's request?” K-2SO's voice rattled in his earpiece, just about audible over the constant background buzz of conversation and rattling tableware in the restaurant. Cassian melted into the booth, the starchiness of the formal suit he wore as a disguise little more than a minor distraction.

“Is this really the best time to be talking about this, Kay?”

“I’m concerned about your well-being, Cassian,” The mark was about to lift his tainted glass to his lips. “It’s my understanding that humans require company of their own kind. You have been more quiet than usual, lately.”

Cassian fought back a scowl and leaned forward casually in his booth so he could get a good view of his target. The mark set his glass down again, the drink untouched, as a friend appeared and greeted him warmly. 

The mark came here every day, at the same time, sat in the same booth, had the same single drink and then left. Not once in weeks of surveillance had he spoken to anyone. It was the one time he was guaranteed to be alone and unguarded by his own hired goons. Slipping the poison into his drink had been far too easy. 

“It’s not that simple, Kay. I can’t just walk back into the Alliance.” He muttered behind his own glass.

The mark raised his hand and waived down the waiter, signalling for a drink for his friend. 

“Mon Mothma has had you hunted down specifically for an undercover mission despite the fact that you have been AWOL for a decade, I’d say that indicates you would be more than welcome there.” said K-2SO as the waiter set a second identical drink down between the mark and his friend. 

The two men clinked their glasses, and downed their drinks.

The mark was fine. But his friend slumped forwards and hit the table with a thud that Cassian felt in his gut. The mark’s face slowly morphed from joy to confusion to horror. His mouth hung open but only a soundless _oh_ escaped.

“Is your reluctance to return because of Jyn Erso?”

_Fuck._

Cassian pulled his silenced blaster from under his jacket, slipped from his booth, and placed a single shot into the heart of his mark as he passed. The pistol was back in his jacket before he reached the door. By the time the waiting staff noticed the two dead men slumped in the booth, and the screaming started, Cassian was halfway down the street, taking the turns and steps that would lead him down to the lower levels where the elite, pampered clientele of the restaurant would never follow.

He recited a list of the mark’s crimes to himself as he walked, and switched off the comms before Kay could say her name again. 

He killed an extra hour walking back to the old warehouse in which he had set up shop down in the pits of Coruscant. He never walked directly there for fear of being tracked anyway, but tonight the extra time allowed him to prepare for the conversation that happened as soon as he walked through the door. 

“The Hutts are not happy.” K-2SO stood in the middle of the room, no doubt having waited right there for exactly this moment.

“ _I’m_ not happy.” Cassian growled, and there was more truth to the words than he would ever admit to himself. He pulled at the collar of his shirt to give himself room to breathe.

“It was supposed to look like a heart attack. It needed to look blameless.”

“This was the first time in weeks any one even looked at him,” Cassian rubbed the bridge of his nose. “How long have I been watching him for, Kay? I had no control over what happened.”

“Because his death was quite obviously murder and not natural causes, the Hutts’ business associates are unable to now move in on his territory without things looking… suspicious. Fingers are being pointed at them. They have demanded justice.”

“Justice?” He hated dealing with criminals. He only did it because it meant sooner or later he got to kill one of them, but oh their codes of honour could sometimes be worse than Imperial protocol. He poured himself a strong drink, downed it, then poured another.

“You have essentially started a gang war. The Hutts have denied any involvement in your actions and have offered a bounty on your head as a peace offering. I would advise leaving Coruscant immediately.”

“And go where, Kay?” Cassian played out other options. A million habitable planets in the galaxy, and nowhere that meant anything. He thought of old rebel bases and Fest and felt nothing. Yavin IV had felt like home, more than anywhere, and that had only been because Jyn Erso was there.

“There’s always Mothma’s offer.” K-2SO stood straight. "You would have to leave Coruscant to at least find out what the job is."

“Kay, no.” He sighed. “I can’t go back to there, ok?”

“Cassian, I have been by your side for almost a decade, I can tell you most certainly that it is in your own best interests to go back there.”

Cassian scoffed and pulled off his boots as he sat down heavily on the dusty couch in the corner of the room. “Are you my therapist now, Kay?”

“No, I am your friend. You have been increasingly unhappy of late. Your margin for error has increased substantially. Your body mass is dropping. Not to mention how often you call out for Jyn Erso in your sleep. It’s my understanding that humans have some sort of morality about killing,” said K-2SO. “Perhaps not killing for a while would be advisable?”

Cassian took a deep breath. He didn’t want to say out loud how good that idea sounded, or how much he wanted to go home, how much he wanted a life with meaning again. But after ten years he wasn’t sure if he would ever find a true home again. He thought of seeing Jyn and his heart ached, as if someone was trying to pry his ribs apart. He made a non-committal noise and slipped past the droid to go to bed.

That night he saw Jyn's face when he closed his eyes, thought he heard her gentle breathing beside him, and woke when he reached across the bed for her and found only empty space. Her presence felt as real as it had felt on the last night they were together when he promised he would be safe undercover on Carida, that he would be back in a few months and nothing would stop him. When he drifted off again he dreamt he was a droid, and watched in horror as his own flesh melted away to reveal steel bones and his heart stopped beating and his veins were replaced by circuits.

Maybe it was time to go home after all.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Mon Mothma may have been desperate enough to reach out to him, but that didn't mean she was going to tell Cassian exactly where to find the current rebel base. Instead he found himself waiting on some godforsaken dusty moon, watching as the small rebel transport completed it's landing. The absence of life and man-made structures was jarring after so long spent on the most densely populated planet in the galaxy, but it was a relief to really feel the sunlight warm his skin and breathe clean air. K-2SO stood behind him, prized blaster in hand, just in case this was all some sort of elaborate trap.

The door opened, and out stepped Bodhi Rook. The pilot's eyes widened, looking almost comical considering how large they already were, and Cassian's chest felt tight. He had hoped to at least have a little more time before having the guts of his memories ripped out and laid before him. Bodhi Rook had found a home in the Alliance when his home city of NiJedha had become occupied by Imperials, something Cassian could relate to all too well. He was a brave young man who dreamed of flying and stars but not of war. 

Bodhi's hand went to his blaster and drew it, and his aim flitted between Cassian and K-2SO. 

"Bodhi, it's alright. This is Kay. He's with me." Cassian raised his hands to placate him.

"That's an Imperial security droid."

"You’re very observant." K-2SO huffed, and holstered his own blaster. "Is that better?"

Bodhi blinked, head tilted to one side as his gaze continued to flicker nervously. Cassian sighed and turned to Kay, and rapped his knuckles twice against the droid’s chest.

“Kay, we’re fine here. You know how to reach me. Wait with the ship, whatever happens I’ll come back.”

The droid looked between Cassian and Bodhi before he slouched in acceptance. “Fine, I’ll wait. But it’ll be boring, and you’ll be in danger and wish you had me eventually.” He turned and clambered back into the ship and the door hissed closed behind him. Cassian turned back to his old friend, and raised his hands again in a peaceful gesture.

"They didn't tell me," Bodhi stuttered as he stepped forward after a long, silent moment. "I mean, they didn't tell me it was you I was collecting. Oh, boy."

"Hey, Bodhi. It's good to see you." Cassian stuck out his hand, and watched Bodhi’s internal struggle pass over his expressive features, until the pilot gripped his hand, and then surprised Cassian completely by pulling him into a tight hug. Emotion suddenly surged over Cassian like a tidal wave and he fought to not let Bodhi hear the catch in his breath. It had been too long since he had close contact with anyone, least of all someone who had once been a dear friend.

When he pulled back he could see that maybe Bodhi was a little overwhelmed too, and they both cleared their throats and gestured to the ship.

They made stunted, polite conversation as Bodhi got the ship into hyperspace and then silence stretched before them.

"Ten years..." muttered Bodhi. 

"I know, Bodhi."

"No, I mean, ten years. Ten years! Ten. Ten years." His voice grew frantic and high-pitched.

"Look, I couldn't come back, alright? Being undercover in the Imperial Navy, it - it messed with my head. I was no good for anyone."

"That should have been for us to decide." He slapped the control panel. "Ten years!"

"I wasn't myself, Bodhi." Cassian raised his voice. "Look, I spent a year undercover in the Imperial military, and their psyche evaluations labelled me as perfect for assassinations. The intel from the Special Ops training was too good an opportunity to miss, but by the time I was done with it I didn't know who I was anymore. I was - I wasn't me. There was too much blood on my hands."

Bodhi stared straight ahead, silent for too long.

"Do you want to say her name, or will I?"

Cassian sighed. "Jyn," the name felt odd on his tongue, like it was forbidden. He couldn't remember the last time he had said it aloud while awake. "Is she-"

"She's better. Now."

 _Now._ 'Now' implied there had been a long time when she hadn't been ok and guilt sat like lead in his stomach.

"I don't know if she's angry enough any more to want to kill you," Bodhi shrugged. "But that doesn't mean no one else will." 

Cassian put his head in his hands and groaned.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Even though he knew realistically that the Alliance would have moved on long ago, part of Cassian couldn't help but picture Yavin IV whenever he thought of home. The newest base couldn't be further removed: where Yavin was humid, wild and lush with green life, Base One was cold, lifeless and sterile - a Mon Cala-designed floating space station hidden in the radar-confusing depths of a nebula. Somehow the reality of it, visual proof, affected him, and Cassian felt a creeping sadness climb his spine. He wondered what Yavin IV would look like now, if the Empire had wiped out the temples and forests and replaced them with their identikit storage facilities, or if they had just razed the surface of the planet clean.

He felt out of place, in his black leather jacket instead of the Correllian-cut brown fatigues, as Bodhi walked him down a white corridor away from where they had docked. Soldiers and pilots and techs passed: the uniforms hadn't changed much, and it looked as if the Alliance was still mending and making do. 

"This is it," Bodhi gestured at an empty room. "Look, I can take you back to your ship whenever you need, but how about a drink when you're done here? For old times sake?"

Cassian nodded, though the idea filled him with nervous dread. He wasn't sure he remembered how to just talk to a friend over drinks. "Sure, Bodhi. I'll find you."

They said their goodbyes and Cassian sat in the council room. There was no life to the place and everything was smooth and clean. There was nothing to distract him from the thought of how close to Jyn Erso he could have been at that moment.

Mon Mothma floated into the room, still wearing the same type of loose white robes he remembered from long ago. To Cassian's eyes she seemed unchanged by the past decade: maybe a little sadder, more tired, her face marked by more lines, but she was still ethereal. Cassian rose from his seat at the sight of her as if he was still under her command. She quirked a bit of a smile at that, modestly aware of her effect on people.

She reached out her hands and took one of his between them in greeting, the soft touch something he hadn't experienced in a long time. Her eyes roved over him, and he wondered what wretchedness she saw. He had never experienced anything but kindness from her.

“I always had such high hopes for you, Cassian. There was even talk of you reaching command level. And then you surprised us all and disappeared.” She gestured for him to sit, and sat across from him. 

"It wasn't entirely by choice." He tried to keep his voice neutral, almost light. 

"I know. And I'm sorry for what we did to you."

He shrugged. "The intel was worth it, wasn't it? More valuable than my life."

Before she could respond, the door behind her opened and Davits Draven stepped in. Unlike Mothma, the last ten years showed clearly on him - his red hair had thinned and receded, the flesh of his face and neck hung looser and his hands were wrinkled and spotted. Cassian did not rise this time, and did not greet his old mentor.

"You have a job for me?" He pushed down any affection for Mothma and any coldness for Draven who took a seat beside her. 

"The work you've done on Coruscant, some of it would require a level of knowledge, of access, that we just don't have." She glanced at Draven who was stone-faced. "We have received word that a gathering of Imperial scientists and engineers will be taking place in the Emperor's library on Coruscant within the week. A celebration of sorts, that will involve the unveiling of a new weapon. The plans for that weapon will be temporarily stored in the master archive as part of the presentation."

Cassian chuckled without humour. "You're looking for a thief, not a hitman."

"We have a slicer," said Draven. "A good one. But we need you to get them through the door and behind the scenes."

"And after ten years, why me?"

"We can't thank you enough for the intel you've been passing through the intelligence network all this time." Mothma tried for softness. "I think you're still fighting for the cause, in your own way."

"Just because I didn't come back here doesn't mean I have any loyalty to the Empire," he curled his hands into fists on his knees. "That has never changed."

"While you were exchanging information with our spies, they were gathering intel on you. But of course, you knew that. You're still good at what you do, Cassian. That's why you were sent undercover all those years ago." Draven spoke as if this was an interrogation, rather than a request for help. 

"We can't pay much," said Mothma, and there was a desperation in her voice he had only heard in the heaviest of situations, such as ten years ago when she had argued with Draven that young Cassian Andor, the soldier with a bright future and madly in love with a beautiful woman, was not the right candidate to go undercover long-term in the Imperial Navy.

Cassian shook his head. Nothing he had done had ever been for money, once he had learned to survive. If money was all that had mattered he could have given up this life years ago. He felt two sets of eyes on him, and nodded sharply. "Tell me what I need to know."

Draven and Mothma exchanged a look, before the general passed a datapad to Cassian. "This is everything we have. If you're willing, we'll have our slicer meet you in the hangar first thing in the morning and Rook will take you back to your ship. From there, it's on you."

Mothma rose, and the two men followed suit. "Thank you, Cassian. This mission is of vital importance to the rebellion, and this is more than we deserve from you."

She swept from the room with quiet footsteps. Cassian went to follow her when Draven said his name. 

"You were wrong, we do need a hitman. Off the record."

Cassian sighed, because some things never changed, and Davits Draven was again first in line to buy a piece of his soul. "Oh?"

Draven slipped him a small datacard. "Someone related to the intel you will recover. He'll be close by on Coruscant. I've already secured the contract with another freelance agent, but if you're willing it can be yours."

He wasn't willing, but he didn't know what else he had going for him. Cassian took the datacard and turned on his heel away from the man who had almost been like a father to him.

He wandered along the corridors, aimless but absorbing every thing he saw - exits, how the soldiers carried their weapons, how to disarm them and make his way back to the hangar.

Just in case. Old habits died hard.

He peered into a dark room lit with glowing and flickering green and red lights, and heard a soft voice with a faint Coruscanti lilt. His heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach as if he had just jumped to hyperspace and his throat was as dry as Tatooine. 

There, speaking code words into the mic at the communications desk, was _Jyn_. Jyn Erso, in the flesh, ten years on.


	2. Chapter 2

Lit by the blinking lights of the communications desk, Jyn Erso looked better than he remembered. Her cheeks were less round, her body had filled out; Cassian had thought her a woman even when he last saw her at 19 but knew now he was wrong because now she was even more _radiant._ Every memory that had tortured him over the last ten years hit him all at once - her laugh, her smile, the warmth of her body against his as they fucked like newlyweds between missions, on missions. His life had spiralled the moment he gave into wanting her, and he knew in that moment that if she asked him to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness he would drop instantly to the ground and kiss her feet.

Her green eyes grew wide and her mouth gaped for only a moment mid-sentence, before she caught herself and he saw the familiar sparkle of anger in her eyes. She rose from her seat, abandoned her headphones, and stepped towards him as he entered the room and strode towards her. And just like that, there it was, the pull that brought him into her orbit, as if she had reached out and grabbed him. Behind the anger he could see her surprise, and her bottom lip wobbled briefly.

And then she was kissing him and his brain short-circuited in a flash. She gripped his shirt collar hard enough that he felt choked and as quickly as it had happened it was over and she stepped back away from him looking surprised at herself, and she sat back in her chair without taking her eyes off him.

“Sit,” she growled. 

He tipped backwards into the seat behind him, hypnotised by the reality of her. Their connection all those years ago had been terrifyingly intense, since the day Saw Gerrera had taken his place on the Council as a leader of the Alliance's ground forces and brought his beautiful and deadly 17 year old adopted daughter along with him.

She had made him want to be good. The last night they had spent together, before he left for Carida, still burned in his memory. Leaving her for what should only have been six months had seemed like the greatest sacrifice he could have made for the cause, to gather intel that someday would have led to the downfall of the Empire so that she could live in peace like she deserved. 

“You, you look good.” he breathed.

Her head cocked to one side. "That's it? That's what you're going to open with? Not, 'I'm sorry I abandoned you ten years ago'? Not 'I'm sorry that our frightening natural chemistry wasn't enough to keep me here'?"

Cassian found that all the prepared speeches from the last ten years had fled his mind, and what came out felt incredibly inadequate. "I am sorry, and I will explain it, I promise."

Jyn's jaw tightened and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Promise? Really?"

Cassian swallowed and knew that he had used the wrong word. He had, after all, promised to her before he went undercover that he would be back, that he would come back for her and because of her. There was more bitterness than fury in her voice, and he realised that time had been an ally as well as an enemy. Had he returned after a year, maybe even three or four, Jyn would have been burning bright with rage. A decade had softened the edges of her anger, as well as his own trauma, and he wondered if her bitterness was a worse outcome. It didn't suit her and a fresh wave of guilt swept over him at being the one responsible for dulling her blinding light.

"So what was finally important enough to bring you back?" She tried for lightness, but there was a bite of sadness behind it.

"A mission, on Coruscant."

She chuckled, a bright sound, but she shook her head. "Let me guess, a fancy gathering of Imperial scientists at the Emperor's Library? So you're my mysterious date?"

He blinked. “You’re the slicer?”

Jyn shrugged. “I always was good at it. And I’ve had ten years to get even better.”

“I’d like to hear about it,” he stuttered. “You, I mean. What you’ve been doing.”

“I think what you’ve been doing is probably more interesting."

"I suffered, is that interesting enough?"

"Depends on how much it hurt." Jyn's eyes roved over him, cold and appraising and measuring. He wondered if he added up to her expectations. "I had to let go of you so you could go to Carida, to fight for the cause, and you've come back to me... broken."

Cassian couldn't argue with that. He had been broken for a long time and he only now realised that time was what he had needed to heal. He didn't want to miss this again.

"Have a drink with me, tonight." he asked as the comms station started beeping frantically.

Jyn picked up her headphones and started speaking codewords into the mic, words he shouldn't have been allowed to hear. "And if I don't?" she spoke to him between messages.

"Then it's going to be a long journey to Coruscant tomorrow. I'm not going anywhere but there, with you."

She eyed him as she flicked switches on the comm desk. There was a hint of a smile on her face, and that was enough to make his palms sweat. She spoke another message into the mic before answering him. "Alright. But only because I'm intrigued."

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Saw Gerrera, Cassian realised as he entered the mess which doubled as a drinking hole for the tired rebels, was as fearsome a presence ten years on as he had been when he first came to the Alliance. He had brought partisan resourcefulness to a struggling, regimented army and made them willing to embrace the darker side of what needed to be done to win. He could always be counted on to make the hard decisions in the face of Mon Mothma's occasionally idealistic morality. Avoiding him would have been the easy way out that would have had dire repercussions if unsuccessful. Facing him head on would earn him a hint of respect at least.

"Sir," Cassian stood a little straighter as Saw turned to him. "It's good to see you."

Saw rose to his full height and squinted. "Andor? Cassian Andor, back from the dead?"

"Not quite dead, sir."

Saw scoffed. "It would have been better if you were. I was glad that you left, for all the pain it caused my Jyn. She was too distracted when you were around."

Cassian bit back the urge to fall into their old argument - Saw had always only tolerated him for Jyn's sake. The old man had respected him as a soldier and strategist, there was never any doubt of that, but even the best wasn't good enough for his adopted daughter. Cassian had always wondered just how much influence Saw had in his being sent to Carida.

Saw was old, and bits of him had long ago been replaced by metal held together by scar tissue, but that didn't mean Cassian didn't shrink slightly when Saw closed in on him. 

"Are you going to hurt her again?" he asked, and the smell of whisky was on his breath.

Cassian shook his head. He didn't know _what_ was going to happen, how they were going to survive this mission together, or what would happen _after_ , but he refused to believe it would involve purposely hurting her ever again. 

"Leave him be, Saw." Jyn spoke up from behind her father. "You know full well that if anyone gets to punish him, it's me."

There was a sparkle of mischief in her eyes. She wore her hair down, and it was longer than he remembered. She had dressed in a simple tunic and fatigues - free from her leather gloves and vest and blaster, soft and open. The sight of her was heady, and he smiled at her timing.

Saw appraised him one last time, before nodding his approval at Jyn who rolled her eyes dramatically and pulled Cassian to the nearest booth. He signalled for drinks. 

"You look good."

"You said that already." 

"Saw was happy to see me."

"I bet," she rested her chin on her hand, elbow on the table. "How do you think I felt?"

He thanked the server for the delivery of a bottle of whiskey, and poured them one each. Jyn took her glass and swirled the liquid. 

"I've thought about nothing else for the last ten years, Jyn."

"Oh, well that makes things much better." She sipped her whiskey. "I can forget the last ten years now that I know you were worried about me."

Cassian sighed. He wanted to pour his heart out to her, but the words wouldn't quite come out. "You wouldn't have wanted me back. Not after Carida."

"Well, I would have liked to have had the choice." She snapped, and then was silent for a long moment as she stared into her drink. "Ok, so you're back, a decade late, feeling sorry for yourself and wanting atonement... the question is, do I give you access to me or have you thrown out the airlock?"

He smiled, purely because she at least had some hesitation about spacing him. "I know which I probably deserve."

She didn't meet his eyes when she spoke next. "Do you know what I did to myself, wondering what I did wrong, why I wasn't enough to make you want to come back?"

Cassian swallowed, felt the guilt sitting like a rock in his stomach. "It was never about anything you had done, Jyn. I was trying to save you from what I had become. I wasn't good enough, not for you. I never was."

She shook her head and laughed softly. "You're just how I remember you," she said. "Troubled."

He chuckled, and felt light. _Troubled_ was an understatement.

Her eyes softened at his smile and she appraised him over the rim of her glass. “So is there a Mrs Mysterious Bounty Hunter?”

“No. Just a very demanding droid.”

“That's not the same.”

“You haven’t met K2.” He smiled, at the thought of the two of them in one room, and it brought his mind back to the following day. “This mission, to Coruscant… do you really want to go?”

“I didn’t. I don’t feel like pretending to be someone else.” She shrugged. “But it’s important to the Alliance. Besides,” Jyn rose, and leaned in close to his ear before she turned to leave. “I get you trapped on a ship with me to Coruscant, with nowhere you can run, and I’ve waited ten years for that.”

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Despite having met for a drink or several after Jyn left him in the mess - and having mended a few bridges - Bodhi couldn't quite decide who's side he was on as he piloted her and Cassian back to the rendezvous point. He alternated between sticking up for Cassian and joining Jyn in her interrogations, until Cassian's head was spinning from more than just the whiskey the night before. 

The teasing was worth it, to see them both smile. For a few brief moments, it was as if he had never gone at all, until he had to contact K-2SO.

The mission required preparation and the earlier they started, the better. Kay began setting up identities and false documents. When they reached the rendezvous point and bid farewell to Bodhi, with Jyn sending him off with a sweet hug, it was just the two of them and his demanding droid.

"Cassian," the droid spoke from the pilot's seat once they were in hyperspace. Jyn was in the deck below, storing her bags. "Were you offered another job that I don’t know about?"

"Yes, Kay. I haven't looked at it yet, though. I'll... leave it until after this mission.” He took the disc that Draven had given him from his pocket and passed it to K-2SO. It had been a heavy weight in his pocket since he had taken it and he was glad to hand it over to the droid. “Why do you ask?"

"I've received a message from Krennic. He doesn’t sound too pleased." K-2SO's head swivelled round to look at him. 

“Play it.”

“Andor,” growled Krennic, his usual mocking sing-song tone absent. “You snaked the Alisandre job from under me. Consider your invitation to the Union permanently revoked. I’ll do your job for you and then kill you for free.” The transmission ended abruptly.

“Alisandre? The Imperial apartments?”

“I would assume so,” K-2SO tapped the disc that Cassian had handed to him. “I’m guessing this is the job he’s referring to? Should I investigate?”

Cassian shrugged, and lowered his voice as he heard climb Jyn the steps up to the cockpit. "Let's deal with this job first, ok? Krennic isn’t worth the effort."

“So this is your droid.” Jyn said as she approached them, arms crossed in front of her. 

“So this is Jyn Erso.” Kay’s eyes looked her up and down. “You’re shorter than I expected.”

“Charming.” She looked to Cassian. “Are we all set?”

K-2SO answered for him. “I am completing the final preparations now. All _you_ have to do is not get yourselves noticed.”

He caught Jyn rolling her eyes. “So just what is our plan?”

“We get in, we keep to ourselves, we sneak off. Kay has a map of the archive and the room we need isn’t far off the main hall where everyone will be. All we need is enough time for you to steal the files we need.”

“So,” she said as she stepped in close enough for him to smell her shampoo. “We drink, we dance… how exactly do you propose we avoid getting caught up in awkward conversations with nosy Imperials?”

Enamoured by the way her green eyes caught the light of hyperspace and emboldened by her soft smile, Cassian reached out and tipped her chin up to him. “By only having eyes for each other.”

“Hmm,” Jyn hummed and leaned further into him, and her eyes darted to his lips. “So we act like we’re madly in love, like the rest of the world doesn’t exist?”

There was no space between them, and Cassian couldn’t resist leaning down slightly, tilting his head until his lips were only a breath away from hers - 

\- and then Jyn’s finger pressed onto his lips, and there was a wicked sparkle in her eyes. “Not so fast, you’re not in my good graces just yet.” She dragged the tip of her finger down over his lips, down his chin, down his chest and abdomen and Cassian just about managed not to let a whine escape. “But I think we can make this convincing enough.”

And with that, she turned and disappeared back down below deck, and Cassian slumped against the wall and resisted the urge to lick his lips where her finger had pressed.

He could have swore the noise that K-2SO made was a groan.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The hotel room on Coruscant that K-2SO had arranged for them was just grand enough to match their cover stories - insignificant yet respected members of the Empire’s engineering corps who worked on a small base of operations in the Mid Rim, with spotless but average records. Cassian made a mental note to congratulate K-2SO on the arrangement - the droid had a tendency to go over the top when building his lies.

Jyn had raised an eyebrow at him at the sight of the solitary bed, but then smiled as she threw herself on top of the plush covers and sighed as she sank into the bedding with arms and legs spread. Cassian grinned as he watched her, remembering all too well how much of a luxury this was compared to life on base (and how much they had enjoyed nights spent together in worse hotel rooms than this). 

From the way Jyn looked at him from under her lashes, with her cheeks flushed, he guessed she was remembering the same nights as him.

"Do you remember that hotel on Corellia?" she asked, and heat flashed through his gut. "When we were delayed for two days?"

"Of course. That bed..."

" _The_ bed," she corrected with a chuckle. She turned her face to the ceiling, and closed her eyes as she ran her hands over the sheets. Her smile faded into something a little sadder. "It burned down last year. I guess sometimes you can never go back to the past."

Cassian felt his heart constrict. "That's what I've been telling myself. Maybe we should be going forward instead."

Jyn was quiet for a long time, and he felt each of his heartbeats in his throat. When she finally spoke it was a whisper that he almost missed. "Yeah, maybe we should." She sat up quickly, and grabbed her bags. "Well, let's get dressed up and go spend an evening with people we hate while we pretend to be someone else. You always did know how to show me a good time."

She slipped past him into the bathroom, and his head went in circles as he tore apart her every word looking for forgiveness.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Soon, Cassian was dressed in a high collared dark suit, a crisp dress uniform fitting for an Imperial Officer, and he tried not to feel ill at the sight of himself in the mirror with his hair slicked back and his stubble trimmed into a neat shadow. Memories of Carida flooded him - the training, the isolation, the _torture_ they had put him through to make him into a weapon while he still tried to cling to being _Cassian Andor_. He shook his head and brought himself back to the present. That was the past, and, he hoped, he had a chance of a future with Jyn again. Seeing her again, seeing the Alliance again, had forced him to confront the emptiness he had been feeling recently. With her - and the planning and the mission - he felt _alive_ again. 

He heard Jyn shuffling in the bathroom, and then the door opened and his breath was taken away.

He had never seen Jyn so made up before, had never needed that of her, but now the sight of her made his throat dry. Her dress was strapless, pitch black as the sky at night, silken and tight down to her hips where it flared out to the floor. The pale flesh of her chest and shoulders and arms glowed in contrast like moonlight. Her soft brown hair was pinned back and her eyes were lined with smoky kohl making the green of her irises shine like emeralds. She raised an eyebrow at him and he realised he had been staring with his mouth open. If he hadn’t already forgotten to breathe, the air would have been punched from his lungs when she smiled at him.

“Ready?” She asked as she stepped into his space and reached out to straighten his collar, which he was sure had been sitting perfectly.

He swallowed hard, and let his hands cover hers where they came to rest on his chest. “Jyn, if we make it through tonight, I - ”

She shook her head, but slipped her arms around his neck and ducked her forehead to his chest. “Don’t. No promises. No ‘after’. What happens, happens.”

Cassian nodded as Jyn pulled away, and the silence between them was heavy as they made their way to their waiting speeder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From IMDB: In one version of the scene where Martin walks into Debi's radio booth for the first time, Minnie Driver decided to let her character put all the cards on the table and just kiss John Cusack. George Armitage said, "It was just wonderful, completely out of the blue. You should have seen the smile on Johnny's face afterwards."
> 
> I thought this actually happened, whoops! Oh well, have a rebelcaptain kiss :)


	3. Chapter 3

K-2SO’s skill with setting up the identities paid off, and walking into the building was simple. The small devices that scrambled Imperial scanners (something Cassian had picked up from the Imperials themselves at Carida) allowed them to get in with blasters and knives concealed under their finery.

Most of the other officers wore similar uniforms to his own and the black that Jyn wore was the favoured colour of the Imperial wives and daughters, so blending in wasn't an issue. They didn't match her beauty, though, and having her at his side with her arm in his felt like a dream.

A waiter passed and they both grabbed flutes of champagne and downed them at the same time. Across the room, a single ‘trooper stood guarding a doorway that would lead to the archive room they needed to get to. The ‘trooper's shift would change in approximately one hour, K-2SO had surmised from his own surveillance, and the odds were high that as the party went on security would become more sloppy. The biggest threat to the Empire had always been their own pride, because they never believed that anyone would ever walk through an open door without them knowing.

The room was sickeningly opulent. Every hard surface was glittering black, and the soft furnishings were blood red. The lights overhead were golden in some misguided attempt to make the room look warm and intimate. Laughter rang out around them, as if these people weren't responsible for the oppression of the galaxy. A band played bland instrumental jazz and glasses clinked around them.

Beside him Jyn looked as if she would break the arm of anyone who came too near to her. Her shoulders were high and her hands were balled into fists. He hoped that anyone who looked at her would think she was just a spoiled wife. For all their preparation, the reality of being in a room full of Imperials seemed to have jarred her. He had spent long enough on Coruscant that the sight of a room full of uniforms no longer instantly turned his blood to ice, but he couldn't deny the nauseating terror of walking among them. 

Cassian slid his hand down her back and up again, feeling the silk of her skin and her dress, and guided her towards the dancefloor. She glanced up at him with murder in her eyes as they stopped at a spot in the middle of the crowd. If they could keep themselves to themselves with one eye on the doorway, they would be able to sneak away unnoticed.

"Hey," he whispered close to her ear. "We only have eyes for each other, remember?"

Cassian couldn’t help but pull her closer to him regardless of the upbeat tempo of the music. Her hands locked behind his neck, and he cradled her hips. There was barely an inch between them, and after a moment Jyn relaxed and her shoulders softened. Her fingers toyed with his hair as if to soothe herself. She laid her head on his chest and he pressed his advantage, putting his lips to her hair and breathing her in. They swayed slowly to the music and he felt her sigh against him as she relaxed. Having her so close in his arms was like being drugged, and the rest of the room faded away to a blur in the background.

“I dreamed of you,” the words spilled out, soft as clouds against her skin. “Almost every night for ten years.”

"I would have done anything to help you, if you had just come back to me." Her voice was like glass about to crack.

"You would only have been hurt trying to put me back together," he pulled her a little tighter. The lack of distance between their bodies made it easier somehow for the words to come out. "I wouldn't have been able to love you the way that you deserved."

Jyn trembled, and pressed her forehead against his chest. "And now?"

"Now I can't imagine ever wanting to be apart from you again."

He heard her sniff. Then she hummed, and her voice vibrated through him when she spoke. “I think I was overly harsh when I said you were broken. I think you’re just mildly sprained.” She looked up to him, green eyes shining but hooded. “Nothing that can’t be mended.” 

She pressed up on her toes, and her soft lips met his. It was gentle and sweet, just the slightest caress, but it stole the air from his lungs

Cassian’s heart fluttered and he forgot where he was, his world narrowed down to the feel of her fingers as they tangled in the hair on the nape of his neck and the feel of her body against him. “What was I going to say?”

“That you’re glad you came back and you’re real happy to see me.”

“Sorry I fucked up your life.”

Jyn shook her head, smiling. “It’s not over yet.”

He kissed her, deeper this time, and ten years still weighed heavy on his shoulders but he felt as if he was climbing out of a pit of darkness into the sunlight, her light, and that hope for a happy life wasn’t so ridiculous after all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pretending to be lovers sneaking off for some privacy was just supposed to be a cover, not the truth. When the ‘trooper finally left his post without waiting for his relief to come along, they had stolen the opportunity to sneak off to the archives and get the job done. They stumbled along the hallway and stopped for kisses against the walls, and it didn't feel anything like a lie. As they reached the archive room, Jyn grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to her height and the wicked gleam in her eyes and half smirk on her face sent his blood rushing south from pure muscle memory alone. He opened the door behind her and let her tug him into the darkness.

Cassian chose to ignore the sensible part of his brain that told him they should worry about getting the plans first. His heart - and other parts - had overridden even his self-preservation.

He nuzzled at her face, and their noses and lips grazed as he walked her back, back until she hit the edge of the desk. Her hips were full under his hands, under the silk of her dress and he ran his thumbs over the bones. In the shaft of light from the open door he could make out the flush on her cheeks, the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Cassian longed to taste every inch of her, to see what had changed and what hadn't and reclaim her as his if she would let him; he was already hers and always had been. He pressed himself against her as she grabbed at him, ran his hands over the silken dress around to the backs of her thighs and pulled her against him, hoisting her onto the desk and making himself at home between her legs. She kissed him hard, and the last ten years dropped out of his memory as if they had been a dream. Their tongues tangled and his insides turned to liquid, his legs trembled as hers wrapped around his hips and the desk took her weight leaving his hands free to rediscover her body.

He chased her mouth as she pulled back: her eyes shone, her lips were swollen and gleaming, and just as he leaned in to kiss her again she pulled her arm back and slapped him hard across the cheek.

His heart leapt for a moment, thinking he had misread her or that she had changed her mind, but as he rubbed the stinging skin he saw her mischievous smile spread across her face as her hands fisted sharply in his hair and pulled him close again.

“Welcome home,” she whispered against his smiling mouth. As he unzipped her dress, heard her sighs as he tasted her collarbone and ran his hands up the insides of her thighs, Cassian thought maybe he was finally home after all.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

He gave Jyn a lingering kiss as she set herself up at the data terminal and started to work. Her cheeks were flushed pink and her hair now framed her face in tendrils that had fallen loose from her chignon. The room smelled like sex and he did his best to ignore the voice of reason (which sounded suspiciously like K-2SO) that told him this was the stupidest thing they could have done. _Worth it_ , Cassian thought as he stuck his head out the door while he buttoned his collar. His heart felt lighter than it had in a decade, and he had no doubt of where he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

The corridor was dark, as they had left it. The sounds of the party could be heard, muffled through doors and walls - the music still played, Imperials still laughed without a care. It looked safe.

Except it wasn’t, because they were being watched. He could feel it, and heard the slight shift of fabric and the inhale of breath from around the corner on his left, under the noise from beyond. Cassian slowly lifted the concealed knife from his belt - the last thing he needed was a shootout that would have the entire party chasing after them. It seemed that whoever was hiding in the shadows thought the same thing as they made no move to take him out when he stepped into the middle of the hallway, without the doorway to shelter him.

 _I’ll come to you then,_ thought Cassian as he crept along, boots quiet on the lush carpet.

He was about five feet from the corner when the mystery assailant lashed out, and then everything was frenzy of kicks and punches and they must have been on the same page because the would-be assassin had chosen a knife over a blaster too. In the blur Cassian caught sight of the man’s suit, similar to his own, but he didn’t carry himself like an Imperial soldier. His combat style was a rough and ready combination of a dozen cultures, much like those Cassian had added to his own repertoire over the years. He won enough room to aim a kick square at the man’s chest and regained his own footing as the enemy slammed into the wall opposite, creating breathing space. 

Cassian recognised him instantly. Tanned skin and dark hair, the face of a million other men, more usually hidden by a helmet.

 _Boba Fett._ The Hutts’ petty revenge had caught up with him, at the worst possible time.

Fett threw his body at Cassian, who angled himself out of the way at the last second. He cursed the noise the bounty hunter made. This needed to end, _now,_ before a fleet of Stormtroopers appeared. He caught Fett’s arm and twisted, the Mandalorian fell to his knees and swept his leg at Cassian’s ankles. They tussled on the ground, and Cassian found himself out-massed and prone. Fett was a heavy weight on his back, and Cassian fought for air against the chokehold around his neck. Fett squeezed tighter, tighter, and Cassian struggled to get any sort of useful grip to use Fett’s weight against him. With the last of his wits, Cassian gripped his knife, twisted his shoulder awkwardly, and blindly plunged the blade straight into Fett’s neck. 

Fett made an awful wet choking sound and his twitching body slid off Cassian to the ground. Cassian coughed and regained his breath as the bounty hunter’s life ebbed away and his eyes went dull.

“Cassian?” Jyn called as she stepped out into the hallway. Her eyes widened as she looked at Fett. Cassian climbed back to his feet and grabbed Fett’s arms.

“We need to hide the body,” he tugged. “If they find him they’ll shut this place down and we won’t get out.”

Jyn hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head and grabbing Fett’s legs.

“What the hell, Cassian? Who is this?”

Cassian growled in frustration, his throat still hurting. “A job I did went wrong. The Hutts sent him to kill me; their timing is wonderful.”

“The Hutts?” Jyn’s voice was a strangled whisper. “Seriously? Any other dangerous gangsters out to kill you?”

He shrugged as they dropped Fett’s body in the corner of the archive room. “Not that I know of, right now. We need to get out of here.”

“And when we leave… is that it? Job done?”

“Jyn, I - I thought you didn’t want promises.” He reached out and took her hand in his. She ducked her head and squeezed his fingers.

“I don’t know what I want, Cassian. I don’t know whether to fuck you or hit you and I’ve already done both in the last hour.”

“Cassian,” K2 interrupted via the comms in Cassian’s lapel. “Status report?”

“We’re done here, Kay. We just need to get out safely.” They stepped back out into the hallway. Cassian ran a hand through his hair and straightened his collar as Jyn fixed her dress. Going out the way they had come in would be the easiest, as long as no one looked at them too closely.

“The employer has asked for an update on the _other_ job.” 

“It can wait.”

“No, it can’t.”

“We’re surrounded by Imperials, Kay, one job at a time.” Cassian hissed as they passed through the ballroom.

“ _Cassian._ ”

“ _Kay._ ”

“I would really recommend you let me tell you who the next target is.”

“You looked?”

“What’s important is I read the file just in time.” 

“In time for what?”

“Your target’s name is Galen Erso, and he is here on Coruscant. At the Alisandre Apartments, as Krennic indicated.”

They stopped in their tracks, and K-2SO spoke again. “Krennic did say he would do the job for you, didn’t he?”

Confusion and anger flickered across Jyn’s face. “You were… you were hired to kill my father?”

“I didn’t know. I didn’t look at the file, Jyn, and I didn’t agree to anything.”

Trust hung between them on a delicate thread and he could see the doubt in her eyes. “I swear. I wasn’t going to look at the job at all, this was going to be the last thing I did here, and then I would leave with you.” He swallowed hard, and reached out to take her face in his hands. “If you’ll have me.”

“Help me get to him,” her eyes were wide and pleading. “And then this will all be over and we can go _home_.”

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

They made their way across the city by speeder, while K-2SO worked back at the base to find access codes and security details for the Alisandre Apartments. Galen would be in the penthouse, and had been there for some time according to the intel. 

“I don’t understand why your father would be a target.” Cassian growled. It was Draven who had taught him self-sacrifice in the name of the cause, Draven who had sent him off to Carida ten years before, who had told him that putting his infatuation with Jyn Erso ahead of his duty to the Rebellion was like pledging loyalty to the Empire.

Not for the first time, Cassian wished he had spat in Draven’s face and told him to find someone else for the job.

“One of the file names I downloaded was called ‘Stardust’. It referred to a weapon the Empire is building, and it’s also what my father used to call me.” He could see her anger, lying beneath the dazed glaze of her eyes. She chuckled, a hollow sound. “He was an engineer, a scientist. That’s why Draven wants him dead, because he thinks it will stop this weapon, as if he thinks my father is more dangerous than the Emperor.” She whispered, and his heart broke. “Maybe he’s really one of them and he won’t want to leave.”

Cassian pushed the speeder harder. He had a bad feeling about this. Krennic had already sworn to take this hit from him, and if it had been put out onto the open market then that meant that the knowledge of Galen Erso’s existence - and the pretty price the Alliance was willing to pay for his head - was common knowledge among bounty hunters and assassins who wouldn’t care about who he was as long as they were the first to kill him. Securing the contract wasn’t enough to stop someone else from trying to get there first for the reward, and the sooner he had eyes on Galen Erso the better. 

He owed this much, and so much more, to Jyn. He couldn’t give her back the last ten years, but he could give her Galen, whether her father wanted to be rescued or not.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

K-2SO had hacked the Apartment’s security and found a faulty alarm at a service entrance a few floors down from the top, accessible via the emergency escape pods on the outside of the building. Jyn and Cassian slipped inside, and found themselves inside a dark stairwell. They climbed to the top - Jyn kicked off her heels after one floor - and peered out into the hallway in front of the penthouse. 

There were no guards, but Cassian could see the security camera above the doorway, and the access panel beside it. He had the feeling this was designed to keep someone in more than keep intruders out. 

“Kay, how are the cameras coming along?” He whispered into his comm. Beside him, Jyn thrummed with energy.

“Overriding…now. A visual loop has been initiated at the monitoring stations, there is approximately a 42.3% likelihood of the loop being noticed via camera within the next twenty minutes. I suggest _haste_.”

“Got it, Kay. What about the access panel?” Cassian asked as they made their way to the door of the penthouse. 

The panel glowed green and then beeped three times. 

“You’re welcome,” said the droid. “I will continue to monitor security, however if you are detected your options for escape are minimal.”

Cassian grumbled as he pushed open the door to the penthouse. “Thanks Kay.”

They crept cautiously along the dark entrance hall. Jyn’s hand was pressed against his lower back, tension rolling from her body into his. There was nothing he could do to comfort her when she was coiled so tight, as if she would explode at any second, and he pitied any enemy that would cross her path when she was like this.

The main room of the apartment was lined with floor to ceiling windows along the far wall, the twinkling lights of Coruscant bright against the dimmed lamps in the apartment. The room was silent despite the pulse of the city outside, the windows and walls were soundproofed for the richest of guests.

Their eyes met and without words they set a plan; Jyn turned to the left side of the apartment and Cassian headed towards a closed door on the right.

Cassian pulled out his blaster and took a breath before waving his hand in front of the door sensor, and found himself pointing his blaster directly at a grey-haired man sitting behind a desk littered with flimsies and datapads. 

One look at the man’s eyes - so similar to Jyn’s - told him that this was Galen Erso.

Galen stuttered and stood with his hands raised. “What’s going on?”

“The Alliance wants you dead because of the weapon you are designing for the Empire.”

Galen scoffed. “And they sent you to kill me?”

“Yes, but I’m going to get you out of here alive instead.” 

“And why would you do that?”

“Because I’m in love with your daughter,” Cassian lowered his blaster. “And I’m tired of killing people for a living.”

Galen blinked at him, his mouth slack. “Jyn? My stardust is alive?”

Right on cue, Jyn stepped into the room, her eyes wide. The look on Galen’s face was enough to tell Cassian that the man had nothing but love for his daughter.

Jyn didn’t step any closer and Cassian could see her wariness, like a wild animal approaching a human for the first time. “Do you want to come with us? Or are you here because you want to be?”

“Jyn, I swear to you, the only reason I’m still alive is because they think I’m helping them build a weapon.”

“Aren’t you?”

He nodded. “Yes, but… a flawed one. It’s nearing completion, and I managed to get word to the Alliance that the plans would show how to destroy it - that’s how they knew to send you here. If I stay, I’m as good as dead as soon as it’s operational.”

Cassian shook his head. “That’s a long and dangerous game to play. But if Jyn believes you, I will too.”

Jyn looked between the two men, her jaw tight. “We got the plans tonight. Come back to the Alliance with us and we’ll keep you alive.”

Cassian spun at the sound of the door to the apartment opening. He glanced back at Jyn. “Whatever happens, stay with your father. Get him out of here.”

She looked as if she wanted to argue but Cassian stepped out of the office before she could.

And then the lights went out, and the only illumination was from the city lights outside, and a blaster shot just missed his head and hit the wall behind him. Cassian cursed, and took cover in the doorway that led to the kitchen. He took a breath and peered out into the room, looking at the darkest parts to force his eyes to adapt to the lack of light. 

He heard the rustle of fabric and boots on the thick carpet near the hallway. He caught the slightest movement in a dark corner, and took his chance and fired. His shot must have just missed, because there was a shout and then the glow of a hole burned into the wall. 

“Erso, the more you fight back the more I’m going to enjoy killing you.” A familiar voice shouted. 

“Try again, Krennic.” Cassian called as he risked stepping further out from the doorway to try to get a good shot. Jyn and Galen were just behind him, in the office, and he needed to clear a path to get them both out of there. “You’re too late for the bounty, I’ve already done the job. Erso’s dead.”

“Andor! What a lovely surprise. Well, once you’re dead I can tell the Alliance I did the job anyway so it’s not a wasted trip. Unless, you want one last chance to join me?” Krennic fired again, and Cassian ducked back behind the doorway.

“This union of yours, will there be meetings?”

“Of course!”

“No meetings.” Cassian took a chance and fired a volley of shots at the far wall, he caught sight of Krennic slipping through a strip of light from the headlights of a passing speeder and got a lucky shot at his shoulder. Krennic fired back blindly, his missed shots lining the wall and the door to the office. 

Krennic cursed at him, his voice pained from the blaster wound. “Don’t be a fool, Andor. Are your principles really worth dying for?”

 _Yes,_ he thought as he considered his options, _my soul, my sanity, and Jyn Erso are worth dying for._

“Jyn,” he hissed, “On my mark, make your move.”

There was no response, so he took a breath and fired across the room again, the blaster fire lighting up the dark corners just enough for him to see that Krennic had taken shelter in the doorway of the bedroom. As he fired and ducked from Krennic’s shots, Jyn used the distraction to pull her father from the office and into the kitchen behind him.

She had her own blaster out. “Friend of yours?”

“Not quite,” he nodded at her weapon. “Cover me and I’ll take him out?”

Jyn smiled. “Just like old times?”

“Cassian,” interrupted K-2SO, “security are on their way to the penthouse. You’ll need to be out in the hallway to have a chance of escaping.”

He leaned his head back against the wall with a thud. “Change of plan. I cover you. Get your father out of here, don’t worry about me.”

“No. We all leave or none of us leave.” Her mouth was a thin, stern line, and Cassian was wonderfully frustrated at how stubborn she could still be. Jyn Erso did not run from fights, not when it meant leaving someone she cared about behind.

Even ten years of grieving hadn’t changed that.

Beyond them, Krennic called out an insult, his voice moving closer.

“Together, then.” Cassian touched Galen’s arm. “Stay behind us, we’ll cover you. On three?”

Jyn nodded, and Cassian counted under his breath. Together they burst forward into the living room, Cassian aiming high and Jyn aiming low, with Galen shielded behind them. Krennic squawked and turned and the bedroom door slammed behind him. Cassian kicked it open and the two men stood with blasters pointed at each other’s heads as Jyn rushed up from behind so that Krennic was outnumbered. 

“Why?” Krennic snarled. “Why are you letting him live? If you don’t want the job why not give it to me?”

Cassian smiled. “Because I’m in love with his daughter, and I don’t want to live your life anymore.”

While Krennic scoffed, Cassian pulled his trigger.

Krennic’s body slumped to the ground. 

Cassian looked at Jyn. “That’s it,” he breathed. “Let’s go.”

“Cassian,” K-2SO shouted down the comm, “your chances of escape are less than 5% if you don’t get to the emergency exits _now_.”

“Jyn!” Galen called from the hallway. “Stormtroopers!”

Cassian cursed and grabbed Jyn’s wrist to pull her with him, but she resisted. She lunged for Krennic’s body, lifted his ridiculous cape out of the way, and grabbed something round and metal from his belt.

A plasma grenade.

Cassian grinned at her and she smiled back; she never failed to amaze him.

Galen stood out in the hallway, arms raised in the face of the advancing Stormtroopers. It was enough of a distraction for Jyn and Cassian to throw themselves out into the hallway and start firing, buying themselves enough time to cross to the stairwell. 

“Go go go!” Cassian called as the guards started to fire back. They ran into the stairwell, jumping down the steps with Galen between them. “Kay, we’re heading to the speeder now, if there’s anything you can do to help now is the time!”

“I can’t exactly disable their weapons from here.”

As if to make a point, blaster fire rang out above their heads and hit the stairs below them. Cassian urged Galen out into the emergency escape pod on the side of the building as Jyn fired up at the ‘troopers. Two floors down, the speeder waited, and with it was freedom and a new life with Jyn. 

Cassian jumped from the pod to the speeder, helped Galen across and caught Jyn in his arms. As the Stormtroopers fired on them from the entrance above, Jyn set the grenade and tossed it back to them. Cassian jumped behind the controls and tore the speeder away as fast as it would go, and the side of the building where they had just been erupted in orange and red flames and debris rained down, down into the lower levels of the city.

Galen was slumped across the back seat, his breath rasping against the wind. He watched Jyn as she looked at her father and something soft - something like hope - spread across her features. 

That same sweet look was on her face when she turned to Cassian and pulled him close for a kiss, laughing into his mouth as the speeder swerved under his control. 

“Let’s go home.” Jyn whispered, and the words felt like forgiveness. Cassian’s chest eased and the dark place in his mind shrank away. He felt somewhat like the man he had been a decade before, full of hope for the future, as if he were someone who could love and be loved.

“Kay, start taking down the office,” Cassian said as he looked at Jyn, who rested her head on his shoulder. “We’re out of business.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done!
> 
> This was massively educational! I've never done an AU based on another movie and it was tough. I hope I've kept at least some of the movie in there!
> 
> I consider Grosse Pointe Blank to be a black comedy more than a romantic comedy, and hopefully I've at least captured the spirit of it while staying in character.
> 
> Come yell at me on tumblr @ohstardustgirl


End file.
